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MADE  BY  THE 

DEPARTMENT  OF  CHURCH  AND  COUNTRY  UFE 

OF  THE 

BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  OF  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 
IN  THE  U.  S.  A. 

Warren  H.  Wilson.  Ph.D.,  Superintendent 
Anna  B.  Taft,  Assistant  Superintendent 

1  56  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 


BR 

555 

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-rv  JJD     .T4  P7 

Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
U.S.A^.  Board  of  Home 
^  '"~ '  '         Tennesse* 


MADE  BY  THE 

DEPARTMENT  OF  CHURCH  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE 

OF  THE 

BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  OF  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 
IN  THE  U.  S.  A. 

Warren  H.  Wilson,  Ph.D..  Superintendent 
Anna  B.  Taft.  Assistant  Superintendent 

1  56  Fifth  Avenue.  New  York  Cily 

The   Field  Work  of  this  invesligalion   was  done  by    Anion  T    Boise n 


a  Cennessee  ^ur\jep 


Within  the  past  seven  years  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America  has  entered  the  South.  The  Cumberland  Union 
opened  up  to  it  this  new  field.  As  a  result,  new  responsibilities  have 
been  placed  upon  it  and  new  and  perplexing  problems  have  arisen.  The 
present  survey  is  a  step  in  the  direction  of  assuming  that  responsibility 
and  solving  the  problems  which  it  presents.  It  has  been  undertaken 
for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  conditions  in  the  country  communities 


•  /«a^l,.^llc 


MAP   NO.  I    OUTLINE   OF   TENNESSEE   SHOWING   LOCATION   OF   GIBSON   COUNTY 

of  a  typical  county  of  West  Tennessee,  to  discover  what  are  the  present 
needs  of  such  communities,  whether  or  not  these  needs  are  now  being 
met  by  the  church  and  other  agencies,  and  finally  to  offer  constructive 
suggestions  designed  to  make  the  church  work  more  efficient.  This 
work  was  undertaken  entirely  without  any  sectarian  motive,  and  was 
conducted  without  regard  to  denominational  lines.  It  is  not  an  attempt 
to  advance  the  interests  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  but  rather  to  deter- 
mine how  the  Presbyterian  Church  may  best  cooperate  with  the  other 
denominations  at  work  in  this  field  in  the  performance  of  the  function 
for  which  the  Church  was  founded  and  for  which  alone  it  should  be 
maintained — that  of  helping  men  to  live  together  in  loyalty  to  each  other 
and  to  their  common  Father  in  Heaven. 

METHOD 

The  field  work  for  this  survey  was  done  in  the  fall  of  1911  and  occupied 
two  months.  The  investigator  drew  freely  upon  all  published  reports, 
county  records,  and  visited  in  person  all  parts  of  the  county.  There  were 
three  main  steps  in  the  process  of  collecting  the  field  data.  In  the  first 
place  the  investigator  sought  out  some  man  in  each  neighborhood  who 
was  especially  well  informed  and  public-spirited.     From  him  he  obtained 


such  general  information  as  could  be  given  without  guess  work  or  random 
generalization.  He  also  asked  him  to  locate  on  a  map  the  churches, 
schools  and  stores.  He  then  visited  twenty  or  thirty  different  families 
living  in  that  community,  to  make  a  more  detailed  inquiry.  These  two 
methods,  which  together  gave  him  an  accurate  general  knowledge  of  the 
county,  were  later  supplemented  by  the  "Sample  Plot"  method  used  by 
many  timber  cruisers.  Certain  neighborhoods  or  "Sample  Plots"  were 
chosen  for  intensive  study.  These  were  carefully  distributed  over  the 
county  to  avoid  the  danger  of  a  selective  bias.  In  all,  twenty-one  of 
them  were  studied,  covering  9.1  per  cent,  of  the  total  area  of  the  county 
and  including  607  country  families. 

Throughout  the  work  the  investigator  received  the  hearty  cooperation 
of  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  and  carried  away  with  him  very 
delightful  remembrances  of  the  far-famed  Southern  hospitality. 

Topography  and  Resources 

Gibson  County,  which  was  selected  as  the  type  county,  after  consulta- 
tion with  men  most  familiar  with  West  Tennessee,  is  located  near  the 
northwestern  corner  of  the  State,  separated  from  the  Mississippi  River 
by  only  one  county,  and  from  the  State  of  Kentuckty  by  only  one  county. 
The  land  is  level  to  rolling.  The  mean  elevation  is  perhaps  300  feet 
above  sea  level.  The  maximum  difference  in  elevation  is  hardly  more 
than  50  feet.  There  are  no  mineral  resources  and  no  water  power. 
Several  lazy  streams  cross  the  county.  In  the  winter  these  overflow 
their  banks  and  their  course  is  marked  by  swamps  of  gum  and  cypress 
from  one-fourth  to  one-half  mile  wide.  Most  of  the  merchantable 
timber  is  culled  out  and  engineers  are  now  hard  at  work  on  plans  for 
draining  the  swampy  areas.  The  uplands  were  originally  covered  with 
a  splendid  forest  of  oak,  yellow  poplar,  hickory,  ash,  basswood  and 
walnut,  but  nine-tenths  of  this  has  been  cleared  away  and  the  remainder 
is  poorly  cared  for.  Agriculture  is  therefore  the  chief  source  of  income, 
and  the  deep,  fertile  alluvial  soil  is  suited  for  widely  diversified  farming. 

Gibson  County  is  not,  however,  exclusively  an  agricultural  county.  It 
is  fortunate  in  having  three  good  railroads  located  within  its  border  and 
largely  on  account  of  the  advantages  thus  affc^rded,  manufacturing  has 
assumed  some  importance.  There  are  approximately  22  cotton  gins,  16 
saw  mills,  13  roller  and  grist  mills,  i  large  box  and  basket  factory,  i  large 
cotton  mill,  i  large  cotton  seed  mill,  and  10  other  manufacturing  plants. 
These  manufacturing  establishments  are  engaged  in  converting  the 
products  of  farm  and  forest  into  a  form  available  for  use.  The  raw 
material  is  for  the  most  part  secured  from  within  the  county,  although  in 
the  case  of  the  box  and  basket  factory  in  Humboldt  and  certain  of  the 
roller  mills,  much  of  it  is  shipped  in.     Gibson  County  was  formerly  an 

4 


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MAP    NO.    II 


A    VIRGIN   FOREST 


important  lumbering  center,  but  the  lumber  produced  annually  is  not 
now  sufficient  to  supply  the  local  demand.  The  amount  of  wealth 
annually  brought  into  Gibson  County  each  year  through  its  manufactur- 
ing industries  may  be  roughly  placed  at  $5,000,000.  Farming  is,  how- 
ever, the  chief  source  of  wealth.  Not  only  do  the  manufacturers  depend 
upon  it  for  most  of  the  raw  material,  but  it  brings  into  the  county  the 
bulk  of  the  money  which  supports  the  population.  Table  I  shows  the 
amount  and  value  of  the  various  farm  products  exported  annually. 


TABLE  I.  —AMOUNT  AND  VALUE  OF  FARM  PRODUCTS,  EXPORTED 

FROM  COUNTY 

Amount  Value 

Cotton 35,950  bales  ^1,510,000 

Strawberries 204,000  crates  310,000 

Tomatoes 632  cars  268,000 

Miscellaneous  vegetables 150  cars  75,000 

Poultry 7,500  coops  60,000 

Eggs 20,000  cases  120,000 

Horses  and  mules 625  head  75,000 

Cattle 3,000  head  120,000 

Hogs 1,500  head  40,000 

Total $2,578,000 

Besides  these  crops,  which  are  the  source  of  the  cash  income,  large 
quantities  of  corn  are  produced  throughout  the  county,  and  wheat  is 
grown  in  the  northern  parts.  The  corn  goes  chiefly  into  meat  and  horse 
power,  and  the  wheat  is  all  required  for  home  consumption.  In  fact,  a 
considerable  amount  of  wheat  is  imported. 

Computations  on  tenure  of  farm  property  from  the  572  farms  included 
in  the  sample  plots  show  that  402  of  these  farms  are  operated  by  the 
owners.     The  variations  in  size  are  shown  in  Table  II. 

TABLE  II.— VARIATION  IN  SIZE  OF  FARMS 

.y      .         f     Per  Cent.  r^^^^.         Per  Cent 

Area  in  Acres  ^I'^rZ  ^^  Total  ,^otal  ^^  ^otal 

^^'""^  Number  Acreage  ^^^^ 

20  or  less 29  7.2  440  1.3 

21-40         86  21.4  2,920  9.1 

41-80 148  36.8  8,977  27.9 

81-160 109  27.1  12,218  38.0 

161-240 23  5.7  4,499  14.0 

Over240 7  1.8  3,095  9.7 


Total 402  32,149 

Average  area  of  farm,  80  acres. 

Besides  the  402  farmers  who  own  and  operate  their  own  farms,  there 
are  170  tenants.  Of  the  families  living  in  the  county  70  per  cent,  are 
farm  owners.     Table  III  shows  the  number  of  each  class  of  tenants: 


TABLE  III.— TENANTS  AND  CROPPERS 


Cash-tenants.  . 
Share-tenants. . 
Share-croppers. 

Total... 


NiiiubiT 


50 
52 
68 


170 


N  limber 
J^cntinj; 

from 

Absentee 

Owners 

34 
20 

7 

61 


'iotal 

Acreage 

Rented 

from 

Absentee 

Owners 

2,461 

1,348 

250 


4,059 


Among  the  tenants  63  per  cent,  rent  land  from  neighboring  farmers. 
This  land  is  in  many  cases  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  owner,  who 
designates  what  crops  are  to  be  raised,  and  sees  to  it  that  the  soil  does  not 
become  too  much  worn  out.  In  many  cases  the  renters,  although  retain- 
ing their  independence,  are  thus  virtually  hired  men,  who  are  paid  in 
produce  instead  of  in  cash.  This  is  particularly  the  case  with  the  "share- 
cropper," who  owns  neither  land  nor  tools,  but  has  tools,  horses  and  seed 
furnished  by  the  owner  of  the  land.  The  cropper  as  a  rule  cultivates 
from  20  to  30  acres,  and  gives  half  the  produce  to  the  owner.  Most  of 
the  croppers  are  negroes.  The  "share-tenant"  or  "renter,"  who  fur- 
nishes his  own  tools  and  horses,  pays  to  the  owner  one-third  of  the  corn 
and  one-fourth  of  the  cotton.  The  cash  tenant  pays  usually  $4  an  acre. 
There  are  only  10  hired  men.  Their  wages  are  from  75  cents  to  $1.00 
a  day  and  keep.  Table  IV  shows  the  proportion  of  negroes  and  whites 
engaged  in  the  different  classes  of  farming. 

TABLE  IV.— PROPORTION  OF  NEGROES  AND  WHITES  ENGAGED  IN 
DIFFERENT  CLASSES  OF  FARMING 

White  Negro 

Class  of  Farmers  Number  f  Totil        Number      ^f 'Tofoi 

Owners 359  80.1  43  32.7 

Cash-tenants 33  7.3  17  12.7 

Share-tenants 25  5.6  27  20.1 

Share-croppers 25  5.6  43  32 . 1 

Hired  men 6  ....  4  3.0 

Total 448  134 

Total  amount  of  land  owned  i)y  whites,  34,403  acres;  by  negroes,  2,184 
acres. 


Methods  of  Farming 

As  a  rule,  the  Gibson  County  farmer  is  not  as  progressive  as  the  average 
American  farmer.     This  is  shown  })articularly  in  the  lack  of  labor-saving 


machinery.  Gang  plows,  binders,  etc.,  are  not  in  evidence.  Cotton  and 
corn  are  the  chief  crops,  and  11  acres  of  cotton  or  20  acres  of  com  are 
considered  a  one-man  crop.  Most  of  the  work  in  the  cotton-fields  is 
done  by  hand.  The  single-handed  farmer  will  usually  put  in  only 
5  or  6  acres  of  cotton  and  10  or  12  acres  of  corn,  for  they  are  competing 
crops  and  require  attention  at  the  same  time.  Most  farmers,  however, 
pxxt  in  more  and  depend  upon  the  help  of  wife  and  children,  or  of  hired 
hands.  It  is  a  common  sight  to  see  whole  families  working  together  in 
the  cotton  fields. 

The  treatment  of  the  land  is  improving.  Many  acres  which  were 
once  "  cottoned-out "  are  now  productive  again.  The  use  of  clover, 
cow-peas  and  barnyard  manure  is  chiefly  responsible  for  this.  The  fact 
that  this  county  is  not  important  as  a  stock-raising  section  makes  the 
proper  rotation  of  crops  the  most  important  means  of  maintaining  the 
fertility  of  the  soil.  A  rotation  often  practised  is  cotton  or  corn  (2  or  3 
years),  wheat  (1  year),  clover  (2  years.)  The  majorit)'  of  farmers,  how- 
ever, still  make  no  pretense  of  rotating  their  crops  and  plant  cotton  or 
corn  for  years  in  succession  on  the  same  ground.  In  truck  gardening 
fertilizers  are  used. 

A  serious  matter  in  some  sections  is  the  washing  away  of  the  soil. 
This  occurs  chiefly  with  heavy  clay  soil  on  hillsides  that  have  been 
exposed  by  cultivation. 

The  Truck  Growers  and  Their  Association. — Most  of  the  truck  garden- 
ing is  done  within  three  or  four  miles  of  some  railroad  shipping  point. 
This  business  is  naturally  a  cooperative  undertaking.     It  does  not  pay 


AN   EXAMPLE   OF    SOIL-WASHING 

9 


where  only  a  few  are  engaged  in  it.  There  must  be  enough  strawberry 
and  tomato  raisers  to  make  it  possible  to  send  out  the  produce  in  carload 
lots  each  day.  This  fact  and  the  need  of  eliminating  the  excessive  profits 
of  the  middleman  have  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Fruit  Growers'  Associa- 
tion, the  function  of  which  is  to  handle  and  market  the  produce.  This 
Association  has  not  been  very  successful.  In  some  cases  the  officers  have 
been  suspected  of  making  excessive  profits.  The  members  themselves 
have  not  been  loyal  to  their  association,  but  have  sold  to  outside  buyers 
whenever  they  offered  better  prices,  which  they  have  done  in  many 
instances  in  order  to  put  the  Association  out  of  business. 

lite  Farmers''  Union. — The  same  difficulty  in  organizing  the  farmers 
has  been  met  in  other  fields  than  in  the  truck-growing  business. 
The  Farmers'  Union  was  organized  with  special  reference  to  the  cotton 
grower's  interests,  and  once  had  its  locals  all  over  the  county,  and  owned 
and  operated  at  least  two  cotton-gins.  This  is  now  in  a  decadent  condi- 
tion. Of  the  31  or  more  locals  which  flourished  a  few  years  ago  13  are 
now  extinct,  and  only  3  are  in  a  really  vigorous  condition.  One  of  the 
cotton-gins  has  passed  into  the  hands  of  private  owners.  The  sample- 
plot  figures  show  that  out  of  441  farmers,  127  are  nominally  members  of 
the  Farmers'  Union.  There  are,  however,  devoted  Farmer  Union  men 
in  Gibson  County  who  have  served  the  cause  faithfully  and,  in  spite  of 
the  waning  of  the  initial  enthusiasm  the  Farmers'  Union  is  still  a  force 
for  good,  not  only  economically  but  also  socially  and  morally. 

Need  of  Organization.— The  need  for  organization  among  the  farmers  is 
already  apparent  here.  Most  of  the  farmers  recognize  it,  but  they 
simply  fold  their  hands  and  say,  "It  isn't  possible."  This  need  was 
forcibly  driven  home  in  the  fall  of  1911,  when  a  cotton  bale,  which  the 
year  before  sold  for  $75,  sold  for  only  $45.  Many  farmers  attempt  to 
meet  this  fall  in  price  by  holding  their  cotton.  The  investigator  counted 
hundreds  of  bales  in  the  open,  exposed  to  rain  and  dust,  held  for  a  higher 
price.  Whatever  the  effect  upon  the  price,  the  quality  of  the  cotton 
would  certainly  deteriorate.  The  great  need  is  for  concerted  action  on 
the  part  of  the  farmers.  Their  inability  to  organize  successfully  places 
them  at  the  mercy  of  those  who  buy  and  those  who  sell. 

The  over-multiplication  of  stores  and  banks  and  trading  places  is 
shown  in  Map  3.  These  stores  employ  altogether  about  796  people,  and 
support  about  2,500  dependents.  In  other  words,  6  per  cent,  of  the 
population,  or  one  family  out  of  seventeen,  is  supported  by  keeping 
store,  and  if  we  add  to  these  the  others  who  are  engaged  in  trading, 
the  commercial  travelers,  the  peddlers,  the  agents,  the  commission  men, 
etc.,  the  total  will  be  close  to  7  per  cent.  It  is  clear  that  this  is  a  larger 
number  than  is  necessary  to  do  the  business,  and  a  large  porportion  of 
the  wealth  that  the  farmer  earns  goes  to  support  them. 

10 


AN    EXPEKIMKNT     IX      C()01'1';K.\  I  H  )N       ((i|I()X-(;iN      OWXKI)      AND      OPERATED      BY 

THE    farmers'    union 


SPECULATING    IN    COTTON 
11 


A    HERALD    OF    THE    NEW    ORDER 


Means  of  Communication 

Gibson  County  has  three  railroads,  the  Illinois  Central  giving  it  an 
outlet  to  Chicago,  the  Mobile  &  Ohio  to  St.  Louis  and  the  Nashville, 
Chattanooga  &  St.  Louis  to  Memphis  and  Nashville.  The  most  inacces- 
sible farm  is  not  more  than  ten  miles  from  some  railroad  station. 

There  are  no  graveled  or  macadamized  roads  in  the  county,  and  there 
is  no  stone  with  which  such  roads  could  be  built.  There  are,  however, 
no  bad  grades  and  dragging  and  scraping  helps  to  keep  them  in  fair  shape. 

Telephone  lines  run  through  the  county,  but  only  208  out  of  503  white 
families  had  telephones.     None  of  the  negro  families  has  a  telephone. 

There  are  80  rural  routes  in  the  county  and  90  per  cent,  of  the 
farmers  have  free  delivery. 


POPULATION 

According  to  the  census  reports,  the  population  of  Gibson  County  in 
I9I0  was  41,629,  in  1900,  39,408.  There  has  been,  therefore,  an  increase 
of  2,221  during  the  last  ten  years.  The  increase  was  shared  alike  by 
town  and  country.  The  total  population  of  the  towns  increased  from 
10,600  in  1900  to  11,429  in  1910,  a  net  gain  of  829,  or  7.8  per  cent.,  that 
of  the  country  districts  from  28,800  in  1900  to  30,200  in  1910,  a  net  gain 
of  1,400,  or  4.8  per  cent. 

The  town  population  includes  eleven  towns  ranging  in  size  from 
3,600  to  200.     Six  towns  have  over  800  inhabitants.     The  density  of 

12 


MAP   NO.    Ill 


13 


population  in  the  country  districts  is  52  per  square  mile.  Gibson  County 
is,  therefore,  thickly  settled.  Table  V  gives  the  population  of  the 
towTis  in  Gibson  County  with  more  than  200  inhabitants. 

TABLE  v.— POPULATION  OF  TOWNS 

1910  1911 

Humboldt 3,446  2,866 

Trenton 2,402  2,328 

Milan 1,605  1,682 

Dyer 1,166  1,204 

Kenton 815  * 

Rutherford 766  677 

Bradford *400  * 

Medina .' 320  * 

Yorkville *300  * 

Brazil. *250  * 

Gibson 233  * 

Total 11,703  10,918 

*  Not  reported  separately  in  census. 

The  original  settlers  came  chiefly  from  North  Carolina  and  Virginia, 
and  are  largely  of  English  and  Scotch-Irish  descent,  with  an  admixture 
of  Germans  and  Irish.  During  the  past  fifteen  years  there  has  been  no 
important  new  tide  of  immigration.  An  analysis  of  the  sample  plot 
figures  shows  out  of  517  country  families  only  19  or  3.6  per  cent.,  that 
have  moved  in  from  outside  of  West  Tennessee.  Of  these  7  came  from 
Middle  Tennessee,  3  from  Alabama,  2  each  from  Missouri,  Indiana  and 
Illinois  and  1  each  from  North  Carolina,  Arkansas  and  East  Tennessee. 
It  will  be  seen,  then,  that  practically  the  entire  population  of  the  country 
districts  are  native  Southerners.  What  is  true  of  the  country  districts  is 
substantially  true  of  the  towns.  The  white  population  of  Gibson  County 
is,  therefore,  of  unmixed  American  blood  of  the  best  quality.  The 
absence  of  immigration  has,  however,  this  effect:  It  shuts  in  the  people 
of  the  county  from  contact  with  people  of  different  training  and  modes 
of  thought.     This  tends  to  make  the  people  less  progressive. 

Locally  there  has  been  some  shifting  of  population.  Of  these  same  517 
families  194  were  newcomers  in  their  immediate  neighborhoods,  having 
moved  in  within  the  last  fifteen  years. 

The  Drift  from  the  Farm 

There  does  not  seem  to  be  any  widespread  tendency  to  leave  the  farm 
in  this  county.  In  19  neighborhoods,  with  517  families  in  all,  only  47 
farm  owners  (9.1  per  cent,  of  the  total  number)  had  left  within  the  last 
ten  years;  26  of  these  had  gone  to  town,  and  21  had  taken  farms  in 
other  places.     Of  those  who  went  to  town,  10  had  retired  on  account  of 

14 


advancing  age,  9  were  engaged  in  the  mercantile  business,  1  had  left  to 
educate  his  children,  1  was  a  carpenter,  1  a  miller,  2  had  left  on  account 
of  ill-health  and  2  were  "loafing." 

Of  the  21  who  are  still  farming,  17  had  merely  bought  other  farms  in 
the  neighborhood,  3  had  sought  cheaper  lands  in  Texas,  and  1  had  gone  to 
Arkansas.  It  should  be  noted  that  no  account  is  taken  here  of  the 
naturally  shifting  tenant  class. 

Table  VI  shows  the  occupation  of  200  country  boys,  who  have  grown 
up  in  the  same  neighborhood  in  the  last  ten  years,  and  are  now  between 
twenty  and  thirty  years  old. 

TABLE  VI.— OCCUPATION  OF  200  COUNTRY  BOYS 

Per  Cent. 

Number    of  Total 

Number 

Farmers 145  72 . 5 

Merchants 16  8 

Laborers 15  7.5 

Teachers 8  4 

Railroad  men 5  2.5 

Mechanics 3  1.5 

Traveling  men 3  1.5 

Manufacturers 2  1 

Ministers 2  1 

Doctors 1                 .5 

Total 200 

Table  VII  shows  the  occupation  of  159  girls  who  have  also  grown  up 
in  these  neighborhoods  and  are  now  of  the  same  age. 

TABLE  VII— OCCUPATIONS  OF  159  COUNTRY  GIRLS  NOW  BETWEEN 
TWENTY  AND  THIRTY  YEARS  OLD 

Per  Cent. 
Occupation  Number    of  Total 

Number 

Farmers'  Wives 86  54 . 1 

Wives  of  men  in  other  occupations 21  13.2 

At  home 38  23.9 

Teaching 9  5.7 

Clerks  in  stores 2  1.2 

Students 3  1.9 

Total 159 

These  figures  show  a  healthy  preference  for  the  country.  The  number 
going  to  the  towns  involves  no  excessive  drain  upon  the  country  neighbor- 
hoods. 

Occupation 

The  occupation  of  the  people  in  Gibson  County  is  shown  in  Table  VIII. 

15 


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TABLE   VIII.— NUMBER   OF   WORKERS   AND   DEPENDENTS   IN 
DIFFERENT  OCCUPATIONS 

1^      I  Per  Cent. 

Occupation  Number  y>,         j     ^       of  Total 

Dependents     ^^^^^^^ 

Farmers 7,000  31,000  74 .4 

Manufacturers 900  3,000  7.3 

Tradesmen 900  2,900  7.0 

Laborers 300  1,900  2.1 

Mechanics 200  700  1.7 

Railroad  employees 200  600  1.4 

Mail  clerks  and  carriers 100  350  .8 

Teachers 234  600  1.4 

Doctors 90  360  .9 

Ministers 42  160  .4 

Lawyers 30  120  .3 

Unclassified 960  2.3 

Attention  should  be  drawn  again  to  the  large  proportion  represented  in 
the  tradesmen  class,  one  family  out  of  17.  Of  the  boys  who  leave  the 
farm  the  largest  per  cent.,  27  per  cent.,  go  into  business,  likewise  of  the 
farmers  who  move  to  town,  and  yet  there  are  already  more  storekeepers 
than  are  necessary  to  do  the  business.  The  result  is  not  only  the  inevit- 
able failure  of  many  who  make  this  venture,  but  more  serious  still  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  economist  is  the  great  waste  of  human  energy 
involved.  In  the  professional  class  are  included  85  doctors  and  dentists, 
30  lawyers,  32  ministers  and  100  teachers.  The  proportion  represented 
in  some  of  these  professions  seems  large.  There  must  be  many  lawsuits 
or  else  very  high  fees  must  be  charged  to  support  one  lawyer  to  every 
440  families,  and  so  with  the  seventy-odd  physicians. 

Education 

The  educational  advantages  of  the  heads  of  the  families  now  living  in 
the  21  neighborhoods  studied  is  shown  in  Table  IX. 

TABLE  IX.— EDUCATION  OF  HEADS  OF  FAMILIES 

TT-  L     ^  c  I.     1  A.^      I  J  Number  of     Per  Cent. 

Highest  School  Attended  Persons  of  Total 

College 9  1.9 

High  School 21  4.4 

Country  School — Secondary 210  44.4 

Country  School — Primary 198  41 .8 

None — illiterate 35  7.5 

Total 473 

Of  those  who  had  had  some  college  training,  6  are  doctors  and  1  is  a 
minister.     The  percentage  of  college-trained  men  in  the  country  districts 

17 


of  the  county  as  a  whole  will  not  be  so  large  as  this,  for  there  is  only  one 
country  minister  in  the  county  and  only  10  country  doctors. 

Table  X  shows  the  educational  advantages  of  the  200  country  boys 
who  have  gro\vn  up  in  the  neighl)orh()()ds,  studied,  and  are  now  between 
twenty  and  thirty  years  of  age. 

TABLE  X.— EDUCATION  OF  COUNTRY  BOYS 

Those  Who  Ha\-c         Tliose  Who  Have 
Stayed  on  the  Farm  Left  the  Farm 

Highest  School  Attended  Number  ^  ^       ,'  Number      r^      ,' 

2d  Grade  or  less 4  2.7  6  11.1 

3d  to  5th  Grades 37  25.3  10  18.5 

6th  to  7th  Grades 64  43.8  12  22.2 

8th  Grade 25  17.2  4  7.4 

High  School 14  9.6  14  25.9 

College 1  .7  6  11.1 

Professional  School 0  .0  2  3.2 

Agricultural  School 1  .7  0  .... 

Total 146  54 

Table  XI  gives  the  corresponding  figures  for  the  girls  in  the  same 
neighborhood. 

TABLE  XL— EDUCATION  OF  COUNTRY  GIRLS 

,,;•  (       Wives  of  Men      Girls  Who  ^--  , 

Wives  of  •     r\,^u  c  ,-•  (jirls  at 

T-  m  Other       are  Supporting  tt 

Farmers         r\  .  •  t-u  i  Home 

Occupations        Ihemselvts 

Highest  School  Attended        No.      P.  C.        No.      P.  C.  No.  P.  C.  No.  P.  C. 

2d  Grade  or  less 

3d  to  5th  Grades 12       14.4        3       14.3                ..  10      28 

6th  to  7th  Grades 34      41.0        6      28.6  10      28 

8th  Grade 32      38.5        7      33.3  2       17  13      36 

High  School 5        6.0        4       19.0  6      50  3        8 

College 1        4.8  3      25  .. 

Professional  School 1         8 

Total 83  21  12  36 

Attention  should  be  called  here  to  the  higher  average  education  of  the 
girls.  Of  the  total  number  of  girls  52  per  cent,  went  through  the  Eighth 
Grade,  or  beyond,  as  against  33.5  per  cent,  of  the  boys. 

Attention  should  also  be  drawn  to  the  fact  that  the  education  of  the 
young  men  who  stayed  on  the  farm  is  inferior  to  the  education  of  those 
who  have  left.  Of  the  latter  41  per  cent,  have  gone  beyond  the  Eighth 
Grade,  as  against  11  ])er  cent,  of  the  former.  On  the  other  hand,  of  those 
who  left  30  per  cent,  did  not  go  beyond  the  Fifth  Grade,  while  only  28 
per  cent,  of  those  who  remained  did  not  go  lieyond  this  grade.     The  great 

18 


MAPNO.   IV 


19 


body  of  those  who  remained  on  the  farm,  61  per  cent.,  belong  in  the  class 
which  dropped  out  somewhere  between  the  Fifth  and  Eighth  Grades, 
while  only  30  per  cent,  of  those  who  left  fall  in  the  same  class.  Thus  the 
best  educated  and  the  poorest  educated  tend  to  leave  the  farm,  while 
those  with  the  average  education  remain.  It  would  not  be  fair  to  say 
that  the  boy  who  goes  beyond  the  Eighth  Grade  is  necessarily  superior 
to  the  boy  who  drops  out  before  he  reaches  this  grade,  but  the  proba- 
bilities are  that  among  those  who  do  best  in  their  school  work  are 
included  the  best  minds  and  the  most  of  those  who  dream  dreams  and 
have  high  ideals  and  a  large  vision  of  the  future.  Thus  the  country 
districts  are  losing  their  best  and  their  poorest,  and  are  retaining  those 
of  mediocre  ability. 

Defectives 

Out  of  340  families  the  investigator  was  told  of  8  consumptives,  3 
feeble-minded,  5  insane,  1  epileptic,  1  deaf  and  dumb,  1  blind,  3  cripples, 
7  toughs,  17  drinking  men  and  1  loose  woman. 

The  Negroes 

Gibson  County  has,  indeed,  no  immigrant  problem,  but  it  has  the 
great  problem  of  the  South,  the  negro  problem.  It  is  not  the  special 
purpose  of  this  report  to  investigate  the  negro  problem.  The  investi- 
gator, born  in  the  North,  is  no  more  than  an  observer  of  the  negro.  "  It 
is  our  problem,"  the  Southerner  says,  and  the  solution  of  it  obviously 
must  come  through  the  Southern  people  themselves.  However,  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  social  condition  in  this  county  which  leaves  the  negro 
out  of  account  is  no  investigation  at  all. 

In  all,  the  negroes  constitute  28  per  cent,  of  the  population,  or  about 
11,000  people.  According  to  the  school  enumeration,  the  proportion  of 
negroes  in  the  county  is  decreasing.  Of  the  total  number  of  children  of 
school  age  only  25  per  cent,  are  negroes,  as  against  the  28  per  cent,  for 
the  total  population. 

There  is  said  to  be  a  general  tendency  among  the  negroes  to  move  to 
town.  Sixty  per  cent.,  however,  still  live  in  the  open  country.  For  the 
most  part,  both  in  town  and  country,  they  live  in  settlements  of  their 
own.  Some  civil  districts  have  no  negroes  at  all.  Map  No.  4  shows  the 
distribution  of  the  negro  population  within  the  county. 

The  negroes  work  as  farmers,  as  laborers  in  factory  and  shop,  and  at 
odd  jobs.  Outside  of  the  laboring  classes  there  are  45  teachers,  10 
ministers,  1  or  2  doctors,  and  perhaps  a  dozen  storekeepers.  Forty  per 
cent,  of  the  negroes  in  neighborhoods  studied  are  land  owners,  although 
in  many  cases  their  farms  are  heavily  mortgaged.  As  a  laborer  the 
negro  earns  low  wages,  from  75  cents  to  $1.25  a  day.     This  cheap  negro 

20 


AT   EVENTIDE 
21 


labor  keeps  down  the  wages  of  the  white  laborer.  It  is  also  one  explana- 
tion of  the  coni])arativc  lack  of  labor-saving  machinery  in  this  region. 

About  GO  per  cent,  of  the  negroes  can  read  and  write.  The  illiterate 
negroes  are  largely  the  older  ones,  who  had  no  ojij^ortunity  to  learn 
when  they  were  young. 

The  negroes  live  for  the  most  part  in  small  houses  of  less  than  three 
rooms,  generally  unpainted.  Many  of  the  negro  settlements  are  back 
from  the  main  highway.  Some  of  these  can  be  reached  only  after  opening 
a  number  of  gates.  The  average  size  of  family  for  84  families  on  which 
figures  were  secured  was  4.8. 

Some  of  the  negroes  are  guilty  of  petty  thieving,  but  for  the  most  part 
they  seem  quiet  and  orderly.  "Every  nigger  gets  drunk"  and  ''Every 
nigger  steals,"  the  investigator  was  told  by  more  than  one  white  neighbor, 
but  when  pinned  down  and  asked  in  regard  to  particular  negroes,  "Did 
you  ever  know  of  this  man  being  drunk?"  "Did  you  ever  know  him  to 
steal?"  the  charge  in  many  cases  fell  flat. 

THE  HOME 

Gibson  County  has  never  had  large  plantations.  The  small  farmer 
has  occupied  the  land,  and  it  is  he  who  has  built  the  houses.  The  pre- 
vailing type  of  house  is  a  long,  low  building  with  two  rooms  in  front  and 
a  dining-room  and  kitchen,  separated  by  an  open  vestibule  in  the  rear. 
Occasionally  the  vestibule  runs  the  other  way,  separating  the  two  front 
rooms.  There  are  no  modern  conveniences,  but  almost  invariably  you 
find  one  luxury,  the  open  fireplace.  The  genuine,  old-fashioned  fireplace, 
which  burns  real  wood  and  creates  an  atmosphere  of  dreamy  charm  and 
romance,  all  in  keeping  with  the  delightful  Southern  hospitality  that  you 
find  there.  Practically  without  introduction,  the  investigator  was 
received  over  night  into  fourteen  of  these  homes.  Only  twice  was  he 
turned  away,  each  time  with  good  reason,  and  only  twice  would  his  host 
consent  to  take  any  pay. 

The  average  size  of  family  is  4  5-10.  Family  affection  is  strong.  "  The 
fact  that  agriculture  is  still  a  family  industry,  where  the  work  and  the 
home  life  are  not  divorced,  and  where  all  the  members  participate  in  the 
common  toil  for  the  support  of  the  home,  gives  a  natural  basis  for  a 
type  of  family  life  which  it  is  very  difficult  to  maintain  in  the  city,"  says 
Professor  Carver.  Nowhere  is  this  truth  more  apparent  than  here, 
where  the  whole  family  not  only  cooperate,  but  also  actually  work 
together  out  in  the  cotton-fields.  Even  little  children,  six  or  seven  years 
old,  can  make  themselves  very  useful  picking  cotton.  Children  are 
therefore  an  economic  asset  in  any  country  family.  This  is  perhaps  the 
reason  why  the  average  family  is  larger  here  than  it  was  in  Missouri. 

22 


A    GIBSON   COUNTY    FARMHOUSE 


This  type  of  child  labor  is  not  an  unwholesome  one,  for  parents  and 
children  and  neighbors  and  neighbors'  children  work  together  out  in  the 
open  air.  The  lessons  learned  here,  and  at  chore  time,  are  not  the  least 
valuable  part  of  the  farm  boy's  education.  School  is  supposed  to  let  out 
during  cotton-picking  time,  from  the  middle  of  September  until  the 
middle  of  November,  so  as  not  to  interfere  with  what  is  really  an  economic 
necessity.  Sometimes,  however,  the  cotton  is  not  all  picked  when  school 
begins;  in  this  case  the  average  attendance  at  school  is  very  low.  As  late 
as  November  24  the  investigator  visited  one  schoolhouse  which  enrolled 
normally  130  pupils,  and  found  only  20  present.  "The  cotton  is  not 
picked  yet,"  the  teacher  explained,  and  across  the  road  was  good  evidence 
of  this — a  farmer  and  four  flaxen-haired  youngsters,  hard  at  work,  in 
their  cotton-patch. 

Diagram  No.  1  shows  the  age  of  marriage  for  193  young  people  in 
eluded  in  the  sample  plots. 

SOCIAL  INTERACTION 

Centers  of  Informal  Meeting 

The  country  store  plays  its  usual  important  role  in  bringing  men 
together  informally.  There  are  45  of  these  scattered  through  the  county. 
It  is  here  that  the  farmers  meet  each  other  most  frequently,  and  swap 

23 


DIAGRAM   NO.   I 


24 


yarns  and  exchange  views  on  the  crops,  on  the  weather,  on  politics  and 
on  religion.  The  stores  of  town  and  village  are  also  frequent  meeting 
places,  especially  on  Saturday  afternoon,  when  farmers  and  farmers' 
wives  and  children  come  in  large  numbers.  County  Court  Day,  the  first 
Monday  in  each  month,  has  also  become  an  important  feature  of  country 
life.  Farmers  from  all  over  the  county  come  in  to  swap  horses  and  mules 
and  meet  friends.  The  investigator  knew  nothing  of  the  custom,  when 
one  beautiful  first  Monday  in  November  he  started  in  the  country  on  a 
tour  of  investigation.  He  did  not  know  there  were  so  many  people  in  the 
county  as  he  saw  on  the  road  that  morning.  When  he  called  at  the 
homes  of  the  men  whom  he  wanted  to  see  he  found  none  of  them  at  home. 
The  whole  countryside  was  deserted  by  its  men-folk.  The  women  had 
generally  stayed  at  home. 

Politics 

Gibson  County,  like  most  of  the  South,  is  strongly  Democratic.  The 
sway  of  tradition  is  very  strong  and  men  do  not  readily  break  across  party 
lines.  In  the  last  State  election,  however,  when  the  temperance  question 
was  involved,  many  men  who  had  never  in  their  lives  voted  anything  else 
than  the  straight  Democratic  ticket  violated  all  precedent  and  voted  for 
a  Republican  governor.  The  investigator  talked  with  one  such  man,  a 
fine  old  Confederate  soldier.  He  seemed  to  be  a  little  doubtful  as  to 
whether  he  had  done  right,  but  on  the  whole  he  thought  he  had.  With 
him  it  had  been  a  case  of  religious  duty  against  political  tradition,  and 
religion  won. 

Leadership 

For  the  most  part  the  country  districts  are  without  wise  and  public- 
spirited  leaders.  There  are  some  splendid  exceptions  to  this  and  the 
influence  of  certain  men  could  be  very  clearly  seen  in  the  vigorous  condi- 
tion of  three  of  the  farmers'  union  locals,  and  the  excellent  condition  of 
the  schools  in  the  same  neighborhoods.  A  fine  monument  to  the  devotion 
and  self-sacrifice  of  a  little  group  of  men  under  the  leadership  of  a  country 
doctor  is  to  be  found  in  Laneview  College,  the  most  interesting  school  in 
the  county.  Two  of  these  four  neighborhoods  have  vigorous  community 
churches.  Leadership  is  also  shown  in  the  formation  of  the  Fruit- 
growers' Association  and  the  original  spread  of  the  Farmers'  Unions 
through  the  county. 

Social  and  Economic  Standards 

There  is  unquestionable  difference  between  the  different  neighborhoods 
in  this  respect.     Some  seemed  to  have  a  fine  democratic  spirit,  with  little 

25 


or  no  class  distinctions,  while  in  others  class  lines  were  shar])ly  drawn 
among  the  young  peoi)]e  and  the  older  i)eoi)le  as  well.  As  a  rule  those 
communities  where  there  are  no  negroes,  are  one-standard  communities, 
where  everybody  who  is  at  all  decent  is  at  home  with  everybody  else. 
Class  distinctions  are  most  strictly  observed  in  the  neighborhoods  where 
the  larger  slave-holders  lived  before  the  War  and  where  the  negroes  are 
still  much  in  evidence.  These  class  distinctions  are  based  partly  on 
moral  worth,  partly  on  family,  partly  on  wealth  and  partly  on  culture. 
A  few  of  the  better  educated  and  more  well-to-do  country  families  seem 
to  associate  preferably  with  the  town  people. 


Social  Life 

Of  good  wholesome  social  life  there  is  much  right  in  connection  with 
the  farmer's  everyday  work.  Picking  cotton,  threshing  wheat,  killing 
hogs,  are  occasions  for  friends  and  neighbors  to  get  together.  The  prac- 
tice of  trading  work  is  still  common  here.  It  is  also  the  custom  for 
whole  families  to  work  together  out  in  the  cotton  fields. 

Besides  these  incidental  forms  of  association  there  are  other  forms  of 
social  life.  These  differ  widely  in  the  different  districts,  depending 
chiefly  upon  the  number  of  young  people  and  the  amount  of  initiative  and 
leadership  present  among  them.     In  some  neighborhoods  the  young 


ONE   OF    THE    OCCASIONS    WHEN    FARMERS    GET   TOGETHER 

26 


people  complain  that  things  are  dead;  in  others  there  seems  to  be  too 
much  society.  Generally  there  are  two  or  three  parties  a  month  during 
the  fall  and  winter,  and  a  few  picnics  during  the  spring  and  summer. 
Most  of  these  parties  are  held  in  the  homes.  The  Sunday  evening  church 
service  is  also  a  time  for  the  young  people  to  get  together  and  these 
evening  services  are  usually  better  attended  than  the  morning  services. 
Dancing  and  card-playing  are  frowned  on  in  the  country  and  are  rarely 
indulged  in,  but  in  the  towns  a  livelier  pace  is  set.  For  the  married 
women  in  the  country  the  opportunities  for  meeting  friends  are,  as  usual, 
limited. 


Amusements  and  Recreation 

Aside  from  the  parties  and  the  picnics  and  the  buggy  rides  and  the 
games  played  at  school,  there  are  few  recreations  in  the  country.  Of 
baseball,  football,  basket-ball,  amateur  theatricals,  there  is  nothing.  In 
the  towns  some  baseball  is  played  and  moving  picture  shows  are  popular, 
Trenton  and  Milan  have  picture  shows  most  of  the  year  and  Humboldt 
has  two  or  three.  Each  of  them  is  well  patronized.  The  investigator 
dropped  in  twice  and  each  time  counted  over  two  hundred  present, 
including  many  children.  The  shows  themselves  are  harmless,  although 
the  themes  are  often  inane.  In  the  smaller  towns  the  shows  come  in  for 
shorter  periods,  from  a  month  to  one  or  two  nights,  depending  upon  the 
amount  of  patronage. 

Fraternal  Organizations 

Table  XII  shows  the  membership  and  the  number  of  lodges  of  the 
different  fraternal  organizations  in  Gibson  County. 

TABLE  XII.— MEMBERSHIP  AND  ATTENDANCE  OF  FRATERNAL 

ORDERS 

X  f  1  V  Total 

.,  No         Member-      \°/^V-  °-     Monthly 

N--»  Lodges         ship  Meet,ng        ^„^,„j. 

^  ance 

Odd  Fellows 12  855  32  730 

Masons 15  712  16  288 

M.  W.  A 16  808  25  380 

K.  of  P 4  240  10  190 

W.  ofW 14  1,067  20  500 

Elks 1  125  

Eastern  Star 4  142  5  96 

Total 66  3,949  110  2,184 

Average  attendance  per  meeting,  19.8. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  nearly  half  the  membership  is  in  orders  in  which 
insurance  is  an  important  feature,  and  these  orders  are  the  most  largely 

27 


represented  among  the  country  people.  Out  of  419  farmers  about  whom 
inquiries  were  made,  only  99,  or  23.6  per  cent.,  belonged  to  any  lodge,  and 
the  majority  of  these  belonged  to  one  of  the  orders  of  Woodmen.  The 
conclusion  would  be,  therefore,  that  while  the  lodge  plays  an  important 
part  in  the  social  life  of  some  of  the  farmers,  it  does  not  vitally  affect  the 
great  mass  of  them.  The  Farmers'  Union,  which  has  already  been 
mentioned,  is  a  social  as  well  as  a  business  organization,  and  is  really 
much  more  influential  than  the  lodges  among  the  country  people. 
Unfortunately,  however,  it  is  on  the  decline. 

Of  open  organizations  or  clubs  there  are  a  few  in  the  towns  but  none 
in  the  country. 

The  social  life  of  the  negroes  is,  of  course,  absolutely  distinct  from  that 
of  the  whites.  They  are  by  nature  a  sociable  people.  They  like  to  live 
together  and  work  together.  Their  drift  toward  the  town  is  largely  due 
to  the  tendency  to  congregate.  Their  social  life  centers  around  the  lodge 
and  the  church.  Even  in  the  open  country  you  often  find  their  lodge 
hall  side  by  side  with  the  church,  and  in  the  towns  they  have  many 
different  lodges.  These  lodge  halls  are  the  scenes  of  many  dances  and 
receptions.  The  church  is  really  no  less  important  as  a  social  center  than 
the  lodge  and  on  meeting  days  they  drive  8  or  10  miles  to  attend  service. 

SCHOOLS 

Gibson  County  has  adopted  the  new  County  Board  system  of  school 
management,  and  is,  therefore,  among  the  more  progressive  of  the 
Tennessee  counties.  According  to  this  system  the  county  and  not  the 
district  surrounding  each  school  is  the  unit.  The  control  of  all  the 
country  schools  is  vested  in  a  board  of  five  men,  who,  with  the  county 
superintendent,  determine  the  various  schools  districts,  apportion  the 
school  funds  and  fix  the  teachers'  salaries.  These  are  determined  accord- 
ing to  the  enrollment.  The  plan  works  well,  although  there  is  opposition 
to  it  in  certain  quarters.  It  is  said  that  it  takes  away  the  old  sense  of 
responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  people  and  is  less  economical.  The 
people  will  not  board  the  teachers  at  special  rates  and  will  not  provide 
wood  and  make  repairs  as  they  did  under  the  old  system.  In  two  cases 
where  the  county  board  refused  to  authorize  the  erection  of  schools  which 
were  clearly  unnecessary,  the  opposition  went  so  far  as  to  build  a  school 
house  independently.  In  one  case  a  little  hamlet  of  160  people  took  out 
a  city  charter  in  order  to  establish  a  new  school  of  its  own. 

There  are  in  all  135  schools  in  the  county,  97  white  and  38  colored. 
Of  these,  11  white  schools  and  6  colored  schools  are  in  the  towns.  The 
rest  are  country  schools.     Map  No.  5  shows  the  distribution  of  schools. 

An  important  feature  of  the  school  system  is  the  division  of  the 
country   schools   into   "primary"    and    "secondary."     Forty-eight   are 

28 


MAP    NO.  V 


29 


A    ONE-ROOM    PRIMARY    SCHOOL 


classed  as  secondary  and  forty-two  as  primary.  The  primary  school  is  a 
school  that  teaches  nothing  beyond  the  Fifth  Grade.  It  is  always  a 
one-room  school,  taught  by  one  teacher.  These  schools  are  maintained 
because  of  the  greater  difficulty  which  the  younger  children  would  have 
in  going  the  longer  distances  to  and  from  school.  The  secondary  school 
teaches  all  grades  as  high  as  the  Eighth  Grade  and  over,  including  some 
high-school  courses.  With  two  or  three  teachers  it  is  possible  to  secure 
much  more  efficient  teaching  and  in  most  cases  they  have  introduced 
special  courses  in  music  and  elocution. 

Of  these  secondary  schools  28  have  2,  10  have  3  and  1  has 4  rooms.  In 
no  case  is  there  transportation  of  the  pupils.  Gibson  County  has  no  real 
"consolidated  schools." 

The  country  schools  are  all  frame  structures.  Some  of  them  are 
attractive  in  appearance  and  well  kept  up,  but  for  the  most  part  there  is 
room  for  improvement.  Out  of  17  schools  inspected,  10  are  situated  in 
attractive  groves  and  the  rest  have  trees  planted  around  them.  The 
condition  of  three  of  the  buildings  may  be  classed  as  good,  of  nine  fair 
and  of  five  poor.  Of  these  same  schools  1  has  a  blackboard  of  slate,  3  of 
hyloplate,  1  of  cloth  and  the  rest  of  wood.  Four  of  12  schools  have  no 
water  supply.  The  sanitary  arrangements  are  much  neglected.  Out  of 
16  schools  inspected  7  have  2  privies,  7  have  only  1,  and  2  have  none 

30 


A    THREE-ROOM    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

at  all.  Of  the  buildings  themselves  1  may  be  classed  as  good,  1  as  fair, 
3  as  poor  and  the  rest  wretched.  The  total  value  of  the  school  property 
is  reported  at  $170,000. 

The  assessed  valuation  of  Gibson  County  is  $8,680,000.  The  county 
school  levy  is  30  cents,  and  the  State  school  le\y  15  cents  on  the  $100 
valuation.  Besides  these  sources  of  revenue  the  schools  receive  the  poll 
taxes  of  $2  each,  the  revenue  from  the  special  privilege  tax,  and  the 
interest  from  certain  school  funds.  The  total  expenditure  this  year  was 
$73,582.  Of  this  amount  $60,000  in  round  numbers  went  for  teachers' 
salaries,  $3,500  for  new  buildings,  repairs  and  equipment,  $270  for 
school  libraries  and  $124  for  charts  and  globes.  Table  XIII  gives  some 
of  the  important  data  concerning  teachers  and  pupils. 

TABLE  XIII.— PUPILS  AND  TEACHERS.     NUMBER,  SALARY,   COST 

OF  TUITION 

White  Colored 

Country        Towns  Country   Towns 

Pupils  enrolled 6,641  1,904  1,504        786 

Per  capita  cost  of  tuition $5 .  77  $10 .  00*  $3.11 

No.  teachers 137  70  27          13 

No.  pupils  per  teacher 43  27  56          60 

Average  salary  per  month....  $45.50  $52.00t  $31.52 

*  Figures  for  previous  year. 

t  General  average  for  White  and  Colored  teachers,  both 

The  data  for  the  town  schools  is  lacking  in  some  cases  because  the 
town  schools  are  not  under  the  county  board  of  education  and  the  county 

31 


superintendent  has  no  authority  to  make  the  town  superintendents  send 
in  their  reports. 

Attention  should  be  called  to  the  higher  per  capita  expenditure  for 
town  pupils  than  for  country  pupils,  also  to  the  lower  number  of  pupils  per 
teacher  in  the  town  schools,  together  with  the  higher  salaries  paid  there. 

Attention  should  also  be  called  to  the  low  expenditure  for  the  colored 
pupils  and  to  the  excessively  high  number  of  pupils  per  teacher. 

There  arc  six  circulating  libraries  among  the  country  schools,  with  a 
total  of  600  volumes,  and  seven  such  libraries  in  the  town  schools,  with 
a  total  of  900  volumes.  These  libraries  are  paid  for  partly  by  the  com- 
munity, through  basket  dinners  and  socials,  and  partly  by  the  State, 
under  the  new  school  library  law. 

A  few  of  the  schools  make  an  effort  to  provide  playgrounds.  The 
investigator  came  across  one  country  school  with  basketball  grounds  and 
one  with  croquet  grounds.  Usually,  however,  such  facilities  are  lacking. 
There  is  occasionally  a  social  or  entertainment  in  the  schools,  but  the 
school  buildings  are  not  important  social  centers.  They  do  serve,  how- 
ever, as  meeting  places  for  most  of  the  Farmers'  Unions. 

Most  of  the  schools  teach  a  little  agriculture  and  nature  study,  but  no 
domestic  science  or  manual  training.  Most  of  the  secondary  schools 
have  music  and  some  have  elocution.  Some  of  them  have  special  music 
rooms.  The  music  and  elocution  teachers  are  paid  by  private  subscrip- 
tion and  by  tuition  fees. 

In  some  of  the  schools  the  regular  appropriation  for  school  puqioses 
is  supplemented  by  private  subscriptions,  making  possible  a  longer  term 
of  school  and  the  employment  of  better  teachers.  It  is  in  these  cases 
that  leadership  and  community  spirit  are  most  in  evidence.  Schools 
whose  income  was  supplemented  in  this  way  were  found  in  the  communi- 
ties which  have  the  really  live  Farmers'  Unions. 

The  most  interesting  of  all  the  country  schools  is  the  Laneview  College. 
This  school  is  supported  partly  by  county  funds,  partly  by  tuition  fees 
and  partly  by  direct  subscription  from  the  community.  The  people  of 
the  community — and  it  is  not  a  wealthy  community — dig  down  into 
their  pockets  and  pay  out  $800  a  year  for  its  support.  In  their  devotion 
to  the  school  and  in  the  sacrifices  they  have  made  for  it,  they  have  built 
up  an  unusually  tine  community  spirit.  Hand  in  hand  with  the  school 
has  gone  the  church.  The  Baptist  Church  in  that  community,  the  one 
to  which  most  of  the  people  belong,  is  the  only  country  church  in  the 
county  that  has  a  resident  minister,  and  is  one  of  the  two  that  has 
preaching  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  time.  Results  like  this  indicate 
the  presence  of  a  persevering,  self-sacrificing  leader.  This  man  we  found 
here,  a  fine  country  doctor,  where  work  has  been  splendidly  seconded 
by  loyal  friends. 

32 


"^^^^ZZv    NEIGHBORHOOD    HAS    UONE 
«»"    ONE    COUN«.  ^^^^^   ^^_^^^_^^^^   ^^   ^^^^^,^„ 

SALEM    BAPTIST   CHURCH    AT   TANEV.EW  ^^^^^^^^^    ^^   ^^^^„,„   SCHOO,. 

LANEVIEW   SCHOOL 


The  school  itself,  while  giving  degrees  under  a  State  charter,  is  really 
an  academy.  It  has  done  some  excellent  work,  but  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  country  life  enthusiast  it  has  this  fault — it  has  taken  the  boys  and 
girls  from  the  farm  and  labored  to  teach  them  Latin,  Greek,  elocution 
and  music.  It  has  made  of  them  doctors,  lawyers,  teachers  and  ministers 
— anything  but  farmers.  It  has  trained  them  for  the  stiff  collar  instead 
of  the  flannel  shirt. 

CHURCHES 

There  are  179  churches  in  Gibson  County,  all  but  one  of  them  Protest- 
ant. Of  these  134  are  white  and  45  are  colored.  This  means  that  there 
is  one  white  church  to  every  224  white  people  and  one  colored  church  to 
every  210  colored  people.  If  the  white  churches  were  evenly  distributed 
there  would  be  one  church  to  every  4.8  square  miles.  The  overcrowding 
of  churches  is  shown  strikingly  in  Map  No.  6. 

Nearly  all  of  the  country  churches  and  half  of  the  town  churches  are 
served  by  non-resident  ministers,  as  is  shown  in  Table  XV. 

TABLE  XV.— CHURCHES  WITH  RESIDENT  MINISTERS 

Churches  with    Churches  with 

Resident  Absentee 

Pastors  Preachers 

Town 22  22 

Country 2  80 

Table  XVI  shows  the  number  of  preaching  services  per  month  in  the 
town  churches  and  in  the  country  churches. 

TABLE  XVI.— PREACHING  SERVICES  PER  MONTH 

Full       /^Tr  Half  Fourth  ,          , 

T^-            fourths  T>.  T^-         Irregular 

Time        T-  lime           lime          '' 
Time 

Town 10  1  18  13  2 

Country .  2  74  6 

Of  the  134  white  churches  47  are  in  the  towns  and  87  in  the  country. 
Of  the  colored  churches  20  are  in  the  towns  and  25  in  the  country.  The 
record  of  the  white  churches  for  the  last  10  years  is  shown  in  Table  XVII. 

TABLE  XVII.— RECORD  OF  CHURCHES  FOR  THE  LAST  TEN  YEARS 

Town  Country 

Class  No.     P.  C.  No.     P.  C. 

Growing 23^9%  28—32% 

Stationary 4—9%  14—16% 

Losing 10—21%  17—20% 

Dying 1-2%  8-9% 

Dead 1—2%  6—7% 

Organized  within  10  years 8—17%  14—16% 

Total 47  87 

34 


MAP  NO.  VI 


35 


These  figures  show  that  the  town  churches  are  growing  more  rapidly 
than  the  country  churches,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  ])oi)ulation  of  l)oth 
town  and  country  has  increased  aljout  equally.  Api)arently  the  tendency 
to  concentrate  the  church  work  in  the  towns  and  neglect  the  country 
fields  is  present  also  in  Gibson  County. 

Membership 

The  total  membership  of  the  white  town  churches  is  5,600  and  of  the 
white  country  churches  6,900;  that  of  the  colored  town  churches  is  1,573 
and  of  the  colored  country  churches  1,808.  The  total  church  member- 
ship, therefore,  is  15,880,  or  38  per  cent,  of  the  entire  population. 

The  total  number  of  accessions  during  the  past  church  year  in  the 
white  churches  is  536  for  the  town  churches,  an  increase  of  9.6  per  cent., 
and  578  for  the  country,  an  increase  of  8.4  per  cent. 

The  church  relation  of  317  young  people  who  have  grown  up  in  country 
neighborhoods  in  the  last  ten  years  and  are  now  between  20  and  30  years 
old,  is  shown  in  Table  XVIII. 


TABLE  XVIII.— CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE 

BETWEEN  TWENTY  AND  THIRTY  YEARS  OLD  IN  THE 

COUNTRY 

Total  Church 

Number      Members 


Not 

Church 

Members 


Boys 200  45%  55% 

Girls 117  75%)  25% 

The  church  attendance  of  the  young  people  is  shown  in  Table  XIX. 

TABLE  XIX.— CHURCH  ATTENDANCE  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE 
BETWEEN  TWENTY  AND  THIRTY  YEARS  OLD 

Total  Per  Centage  Attending 

Number  Well      Occasionally      None 

Boys 127  61.4  19  19.6 

Girls 110  81  15  4. 

These  figures  emphasize  the  generally  recognized  difference  between 
the  religious  susceptibility  of  boys  and  girls. 

A  study  of  484  white  country  families  showed  that  72  per  cent,  of  the 
heads  of  these  families  were  church  members.  It  showed  further  that 
57  per  cent,  attended  church  well  (i.e.,  more  than  75  per  cent,  of  the 
preaching  days),  21.5  attended  church  occasionally,  while  21.5  per  cent, 
did  not  attend  at  all.  Diagram  No.  2  shows  the  church  attendance  of 
heads  of  families  arranged  according  to  the  degree  of  wealth.  In  the 
diagram  the  width  of  each  block  indicates  the  proportionate  number  of 
men  represented  in  it  and  the  length  represents  the  percentage  of  church 
attendance. 

36 


WhoT  the  Church  isVomc^  f-orthe 
Voor  Man. 


^  't±"f  ^ 


a-tt&nai 
occdLsioTtal'li 


cuifTendm 
none 


1 


nireJ,  Aten 

Shojre  len<xnt<y 


DIAGRAM    NO.    II 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  bulk  of  the  church  membership  is  of  the  more 
well-to-do  families  and  that  the  poorer  families  are  not  so  apt  to  belong. 

Sunday  School 

Among  the  82  white  country  churches  there  are  61  which  have  Sunday 
Schools.  The  others  either  have  none  or  else  in  a  few  cases  hold  a  Union 
Sunday-school  with  some  other  church.  In  many  of  the  country  Sunday- 
schools  the  session  lasts  only  six  months.     The  total  enrollment  for  the 

37 


white  town  churches  is  4,029,  for  the  country  churches  3,412.  The 
average  attendance  is  roughly  about  60  per  cent,  of  the  enroUment  in 
both  towTi  and  country.  Out  of  2,949  enrolled  in  the  town  schools  1,111 
are  adults,  1,083  are  children,  and  755  are  young  people  between  15  and 
21  years  old.  Of  2,228  enrolled  in  the  country  656  are  adults,  872  are 
children  14  or  under,  and  700  are  young  people.  There  are  237  teachers 
in  the  towns  and  191  in  the  country.  Only  one  Sunday-school  was 
found  in  which  regular  teachers'  meetings  were  held,  and  only  one  in 
which  the  graded  lessons  were  used. 

Church  Property 

The  total  value  of  the  church  property  is  estimated  at  $340,000,  which 
is  just  twice  the  valuation  of  the  school  property.  Of  the  total  valuation 
$210,000  is  invested  in  the  white  town  churches,  $95,000  in  the  white 
country  churches,  $15,000  in  colored  country  churches  and  $20,000  in 
colored  town  churches.  The  country  churches  are  generally,  one-room 
buildings  situated  in  a  grove  or  surrounded  by  planted  trees.  The 
average  seating  capacity  is  slightly  less  than  200.  They  are  usually 
heated  by  wood  stoves  and  lighted  by  oil  lamps.  They  are  as  a  rule  kept 
up  better  than  the  schools.  Many  of  them  have  cemeteries  in  connection 
with  them. 

Church  Budget 

The  total  expenditure  last  year  for  all  church  purj^oses  was  ^63,140, 
almost  as  much  as  that  for  schools.  Of  this  amount  ^34,600  was  paid 
out  by  the  white  town  churches,  ^20,524  by  the  white  country  churches, 
and  ^8,000  by  the  colored  churches.  Of  this  amount  52  per  cent,  went 
to  pay  the  ministers.  The  average  country  church  pays  its  minister 
^108  a  year  and  the  average  town  church  ^455  a  year. 

The  Ministers 

There  are  33  white  and  10  colored  ministers  living  in  the  County.  Of 
the  white  ministers  22  are  resident  town  pastors.  The  other  eleven 
preach  wherever  they  can  get  work.  Usually  they  have  three  or  four 
churches  and  in  a  few  cases  as  many  as  five.  Of  the  resident  pastors  ten 
give  full  time  to  one  church.  The  rest  divide  their  time  between  two  or 
three  churches.  In  addition  to  the  ministers  living  within  the  county 
there  are  14  students  from  neighboring  colleges  who  do  supply  work  here. 
Five  country  ministers  are  also  farmers,  three  are  teachers.  The  highest 
salary  paid  is  ^1,800  and  seven  of  the  thirty-three  receive  over  ^1,000. 
The  salaries  of  the  rest  will  hardly  average  o^'er  ^700. 

Most  of  these  men  secured  their  education  at  neighboring  colleges  and 
academies.     Only  seven  of  them  have  had  seminary  training. 

38 


l73(Ehurches'm 
Gibson  County, lenn. 

OneWhife  Church  to  every  4-8square 

miles  and  to  every  248  people. 
OneColoredChurch  to  every  210people. 


NEEDEDl 

Trained  Religious  Leaders 

for  the 

(Country  Communities 

In  O'ibson  Coiudi/,^ruL 

82  Whte  Gountry  Churches 

t  have  resident  Ministers 

80  are  without  resident  Ministers 

2havepreachinghalftinie 

80  have  preaching  fourth  time 

Not  one  has  preachin^eveiy Sunday 


39 


Their  libraries  will  average  about  200  volumes  and  are  chiefly  theo- 
logical and  homiletical  books. 

Sectarianism 

Table  XX  shows  the  names  and  the  membership  of   the   different 
religious  bodies. 

TABLE   XX.  — NUMBER   AND   MEMBERSHIP   OF   THE   DIFFERENT 
RELIGIOUS  BODIES— WHITE 


Denomination 

Baptist 

Methodist 

Cumberland  Presbyterian. 

Disciples 

Southern  Presbyterian. . .  . 

Presbyterian,  U.  S.  A 

Catholic 

Episcopalian 

Christian  Science 

Primitive  Ba])tist 

F.  W.  Baptist 

Methodist  Protestant 

Holiness 

Adventist 


No. 

10 
11 
9 
9 
3 
3 
1 
1 
1 


Town 

Total 
Mem'ship 

1,950 

1,952 

676 

483 

265 

202 

50 

10 

15 


No. 

22 

23 

12 

10 

4 

0 

0 

0 

0 


Country 

Total 
Mem'ship 

2,709 

1,956 

1,023 

542 

185 

0 

0 

0 

0 

321 

100 

50 

20 

30 


Attention  should  be  called  to  the  strength  of  the  Baptist  and  the 
Methodist  bodies  and  the  "Anti-Unionist"  Cumberland  Presbyterians. 

There  is  often  a  good  deal  of  interchurch  attendance  and  the 
churches  have  stood  together  splendidly  in  the  great  prohibition  cam- 
paign— a  splendid  augury  for  the  future — but  for  the  most  part  the 
different  denominations  are  rivals.  Instead  of  cooperating  they  are 
competing  with  each  other;  and  the  founding  of  33  new  churches 
within  the  last  10  years  in  this  already  badly  overchurched  region 
shows  how  little  they  understand  the  common  cause  for  which  all 
churches  exist.  The  investigator  could  see  little  hope  for  any  scheme 
of  church  federation  in  the  near  future.  The  attitude  of  a  very  large 
proj)ortion  of  the  church  members  is  well  summed  uj)  in  the  reply  of  a 
member  of  one  of  the  four  Trezevant  churches  to  the  suggestion  that 
perhaps  some  time  these  churches  could  get  together  and  support  a 
resident  pastor  on  full  time.  This  man  appeared  startled  and  replied 
with  some  heat,  "Not  so  long  as  I  have  any  breath  in  my  body." 

The  most  unfortunate  situation  exists  here  as  a  result  of  the  Cumber- 
land Union.  This  union  undertaken  to  solve  the  difficult  overchurching 
problem,  has  failed  of  its  purpose  in  this  county.  Instead  of  fewer  and 
stronger  churches  the  result  has  been  more  and  weaker  churches.     Be- 

40 


RIVALS — TWO  COLORED  CHURCHES  blDK   BY  SIDE  IN  THE  OPEN  COUNTRY 

fore  the  union  there  were  twenty  Cumberland  churches  in  the  county 
and  there  are  still  twenty.  Each  of  the  three  "U.  S.  A. "  churches  is  the 
result  of  a  split  which  has  generated  in  many  cases  the  bitterest  of  feeling. 

The  Power  of  the  Church 

Throughout  this  region  the  church  is  strongly  entrenched  in  the  affections 
of  the  people.  The  church  together  with  the  school  is  the  great  institu- 
tion of  the  country  people  and  their  interest  in  the  church  and  in  religion 
is  deep  and  genuine. 

There  is  little  hostility  to  the  church  and  there  are  few  in  these  coun- 
try neighborhoods  who  do  not  believe  in  the  church  and  in  Christianity. 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

Gibson  County,  Tennessee,  is  shown  in  this  survey  to  be  a  fine  farming 
country,  with  unusual  promise  for  the  future.  When  this  survey  is 
read  there  is  very  little  left  of  the  common  complaints  which  we  hear 
about  country  life.  The  population  is  contented  in  the  country.  Those 
who  go  away  to  the  cities  are  not  too  many  in  number.  There  is  a 
measure  of  leadership  in  the  country  and  there  is  a  diversity  of  occupa- 
tion to  interest  and  employ  the  people.  A  wholesome  variety  of  crops 
is  raised  and  last  of  all,  the  people  of  the  county  manufacture  a  great 
deal  of  their  own  products. 

41 


TheTownward  Drift 

Record  of  White  Churches 
for  the  last  Ten  Years  in 
Gibson  County,  Tennessee 


41  Town 
Churches 

< 

81  Country 
Churches 

49% 

Growing 

32% 

9% 

Stationary 

16% 

21% 

Losing 

20% 

2% 

Dying 

9% 

2%              Dead                7% 

17%    Organized  within    j^^ 

Ten  Years 

CHART   V. 

The  first  thing  to  recommend,  therefore,  is  that  Gibson  County  main- 
tain the  ground  it  has  and  irhprove  in  these  very  particulars.  Churches 
and  schools  must  take  warning  from  the  ill  condition  of  other  regions 
which  have  lost  very  many  of  their  people,  from  the  closing  down  of 
country  industries,  the  indifference  to  country  people's  needs,  the  neglect 
of  social  life  and  the  exhaustion  of  the  soil.  If  the  churches  in  Gibson 
County  desire  to  maintain  their  influence,  they  must  keep  their  people 
around  them.  To  keep  their  people  they  must  teach  that  the  soil  is 
sacred.  They  must  praise  the  farmer  who  fertilizes  and  who  improves 
the  rotation  of  crops,  who  keeps  cattle,  who  plants  clover  and  who  in 
other  words  is  a  farmer  for  the  future  as  well  as  for  the  present.    The 

42 


churches  must  teach  the  iniquity  of  speculation  in  land  and  the  fact 
that  the  farmer  who  has  made  only  cash  has  failed. 

Second.  The  ministers  in  Gibson  County,  however,  are  not  helping 
the  farmer  to  stay  in  the  country,  because  they  themselves  are  moving 
into  town.  This  was  not  so  in  former  times.  The  old-fashioned  preacher 
used  to  live  with  the  farmer.  There  were  no  towns  in  those  days.  The 
modern  preacher  has  nothing  for  the  farmer  but  a  sermon.  Three  hours 
a  month  is  the  stint  he  gives  for  the  pay  he  gets.  Of  course  he  comes  out 
to  a  few  weddings  and  funerals,  but  sermons  and  marriages  and  burials 
are  a  dismal  kind  of  religion.  The  minister  if  he  is  going  to  bring  the 
people  in  Gibson  County  into  the  Lord's  ways  must  live  with  them  and 
walk  with  them  in  those  ways  himself.  His  wife  will  then  be  of  more 
use  in  the  country,  perhaps,  than  he  will  be,  and  certainly  she  will  be 
of  more  use  to  the  people  in  the  country  than  she  is  now  when  she  lives 
in  the  town.  His  children  will  have  religious  value  if  his  home  is  with 
country  people;  for  they  too  have  children. 

The  churches  of  all  denominations  are  alike  in  desertion  of  the  country 
by  their  preachers.  How  can  the  minister  teach  anything  but  an  ab- 
sentee religion  when  he  lives  an  absentee  life?  He  talks  of  course  about 
Heaven  and  Hell  and  Palestine,  none  of  which  the  farmer  has  ever  seen. 
The  Bible  men  talked  about  a  holy  land  in  which  they  lived  with  their 
people,  about  cows  and  mules  and  camels,  about  grasshoppers  and 
storms  and  about  rent,  about  ownership  of  land  and  other  things  that 
are  in  the  country. 

For  the  country  churches  to  have  pastors  they  must  pay  the  bill. 
Two  or  three  country  churches  must  be  grouped  together.  This  country 
is  full  of  Baptist  Churches.  It  would  be  a  blessing  to  Gibson  County 
if  three  Baptist  Churches  could  be  grouped  together  withing  driving 
distance  of  one  another  to  support  a  pastor  living  among  his  people. 
The  Home  Field  says,  "There  are  thousands  of  country  churches  in 
the  South  that  could  easily  employ  a  pastor  for  two  Sundays  in  the 
month  and  two  of  these  churches  by  forming  a  field  would  find  no  trouble 
in  providing  a  comfortable  support  for  the  pastor.  There  are  hundreds 
and  hundreds  of  country  churches  in  the  South  that  could  easily  support 
a  pastor  for  his  whole  time."  We  believe  that  any  christian  living  in 
such  a  neighborhood  should  give  his  support  to  such  a  Baptist  pastor 
in  the  country,  because  no  greater  help  could  be  given  to  a  country  com- 
munity than  the  service  of  a  wise  and  devoted  pastor  living  with  his 
people.  The  problem  of  country  life  for  all  people  in  Gibson  County 
will  be  greatly  affected  by  such  rural  ministry. 

Third.  We  commend  to  the  attention  of  Christian  folk  in  Gibson 
County  that  the  churches  of  all  denominations  in  this  county  are  failing 
to  get  hold  of  the  men  and  the  young  men  of  the  county.     It  is  a  bad 

43 


Future  Citizens 

(White) 

of  Gibson  County,  Tenn. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ 


NOT  IN  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 


40% 


IN  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

8545 

are  now  of  school  age 

3400 

are  enrolled  in  Sunday  School 

5195 

are  not  Enrolled  in  Sunday  School 

Is  the  Church  making  the 
most  of  its  opportunity? 


CHART  VI. 


thing  for  a  church,  and  it  a  very  serious  thing  for  all  churches,  to  fail 
to  interest  the  men.  Men  are  not  any  more  wicked  than  women  and  true 
religion  has  just  as  much  hold  on  a  man  as  on  a  woman.  But  the  men 
have  a  harder  strain  upon  them  in  supporting  the  family.  They  have 
more  things  to  contend  with  outside  the  home.  The  kind  of  religion 
that  interests  a  man  is  religion  that  helps  him  to  be  a  good  farmer,  a  good 
citizen,  a  good  man  among  men.  He  has  to  use  his  religion  the  same 
week.  He  cannot  afiford  a  religion  that  must  be  kept  in  storage  for  use 
in  another  place  or  another  world.  He  is  not  a  dreamer.  He  has  to  be 
practical. 

We  suggest  two  lines  of  interest  for  country  churches.     Both  of  these 

44 


are  meant  to  help  men  and  young  men  live  the  life  they  must  live. 
First  of  all  the  church  ought  to  make  the  farmer  a  good  farmer.  It 
ought  to  study  his  needs  and  help  to  satisfy  them.  The  preacher  ought 
to  talk  the  language  of  the  country.  He  ought  to  know  the  events  of 
the  week.  He  ought  to  be  able  to  "heal  the  hurt  of  the  people."  The 
minister  will  be  greatly  helped  in  this  if  occasionally  the  church  is  open 
for  a  lecture  on  good  farming.  It  puts  things  in  the  right  light  if  good 
farming  and  good  Gospel  are  made  one,  as  they  are  in  the  Old  Testament. 

Furthermore,  the  young  men  of  the  community  are  interested  in  the 
play  life.  They  will  soon  get  over  it,  but  for  the  time  being  they  think 
more  about  play  than  about  work.  This  is  not  wicked  on  their  part; 
it  is  natural,  and  they  will  soon  get  to  be  sober  and  staid  enough;  that 
too  is  natural.  While  they  are  young  they  ought  to  have  encouragement 
from  the  church.  The  women  of  the  churches  feel  this;  and  attempt 
to  give  some  social  life  to  the  community,  but  the  men  are  generally 
against  it.  The  church  ought  to  be  open,  and  the  homes  of  the  people 
ought  to  be  open,  regularly,  for  social  opportunities  that  will  enable  the 
young  people  to  work  off  their  steam,  to  get  acquainted;  and  to  feel  that 
the  older  people,  and  the  leaders  of  the  church  especially,  are  their  friends. 
It  will  do  a  great  deal  to  cultivate  good  sense  among  the  young  and  good 
feeling  among  all,  if  religious  people  take  the  lead  in  providing  recreation 
and  social  life  for  the  young  people  of  the  community.  It  is  another 
way  of  getting  the  church  in  the  right  place  as  a  leading  organization 
for  the  good  things  in  the  community.  Everything  that  is  good  is  dear 
to  the  Lord  and  ought  to  be  upheld  by  God's  people. 

Fourth.  The  survey  shows  that  the  people  of  this  county  believe  in 
organization  among  country  people.  A  wise  old  farmer  in  Iowa,  who 
knows  the  people  of  the  country  generally,  says:  "What  the  farmer  needs 
is  organization."  The  farmers'  union  and  the  fruit-growers  association 
are  serious  attempts  on  the  part  of  the  farmers  to  organize  and  they 
should  not  be  allowed  to  fail.  We  have  no  interest  in  these  unions,  but 
we  believe  that  the  farmer  should  be  organized  in  the  interest  of  getting 
a  better  income,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  care  of  his  own  business  and 
for  the  protection  of  his  home  and  his  community  against  the  big  organi- 
zations which  threaten  him  from  without.  The  lesson  of  working  to- 
gether for  the  common  good,  of  subordinating  our  own  interests  to  the 
welfare  of  all,  is  the  most  important  of  Christian  teachings,  and  we 
believe,  therefore  that  the  churches  of  Gibson  County  ought  to  lend 
encouragement  to  these  attempts  at  cooperation. 

The  duty  of  cooperation  among  farmers  ought  to  be  taught  in  gather- 
ings of  church  people,  not  necessarily  on  Sunday,  but  on  the  days  of  the 
week.  At  picnics,  on  social  occasions  and  at  other  times  the  church 
ought  to  make  very  plain  its  support  of  the  leadership  of  farmers  among 

45 


"four  IN  A  ROW."       ALL  OF  THEM  ARE  CHURCHES.      THREE  OF  THEM  HAVE  PREACH- 
ING ONCE  A  MONTH  AND  ONE  HAS  PREACHING  TWICE  A  MONTH  AND 
THERE   IS    NO   RESIDENT   MINISTER   IN   THE   TOWN 


farmers  and  the  loyalty  of  every  farmer  to  his  own  leaders.  The  great 
lesson  to  be  taught  by  the  country  church  is  that  of  obedience  not 
merely  to  great  leaders  who  are  dead,  but  to  living  leaders  of  today. 
It  will  be  a  good  thing  for  the  country  churches  when  farmers  learn  to 
cooperate  in  buying  and  selling  and  in  manufacturing  their  own  pro- 
ducts, for  it  will  train  them  in  obedience,  in  loyalty,  in  truth,  in  honorable 
action,  in  responsibility  and  chief  of  all  will  train  leaders  among  farmers, 
the  need  of  whom  at  the  present  time  is  the  greatest  need  in  the  country. 

Fijth.  We  recommend  that  the  schools  in  Gibson  County  devote 
more  attention  to  training  men  for  the  work  they  will  have  to  do.  Farm- 
ing is  now  coming  to  be  a  learned  profession.  We  are  beginning  to  see 
how  noble  and  dignified  farming  may  be  made.  Behind  the  tiller  of  the 
soil  are  learned  men  investigating  in  chemistry,  in  physics,  in  physio- 
logy, in  botany.  Some  day  the  common  farm  hand,  the  careless  negro 
or  renter  may  till  the  soil  under  learned  instructions.  This  is  coming  to 
pass  already.  The  farmer  is  the  botanist.  He  is  the  man  who  practices 
the  lessons  about  chemistry  which  learned  men  discover  in  their  secret 
laboratories. 

Now  the  common  school  ought  to  teach  to  the  ordinary  boy  and  girl 
who  never   go   to   any  other  school  these  lessons  and   this   learning. 

46 


This  kind  of  a  school  is  homely  and  this  seems  like  common  talk,  but 
there  is  needed  much  more  common  sense  and  much  less  learned  non- 
sense in  the  common  schools  in  order  that  the  ordinary  boy  and  girl  may 
stay  longer  in  the  school  than  the  fourth  grade. 

Sixth.  We  recommend  that  there  is  needed  in  Gibson  County  a  great 
Sunday-school  movement.  The  Sunday-schools  of  the  county  are  very 
weak,  especially  in  the  country.  There  is  a  big  difference  between  the 
number  of  children  in  the  town  Sunday-schools  and  the  number  of 
children  in  the  country  Sunday-schools.  In  the  town  schools  more  than 
five-sevenths  of  the  children  are  in  the  Sunday-school;  in  the  country, 
less  than  one-fourth.  Not  all  the  country  churches  have  Sunday-schools, 
though,  of  course,  we  recognize  that  about  twelve  of  them  are  doctrinally 
opposed  to  the  Sunday  school  and  about  eight  of  them  are  dying. 

But  the  study  of  the  Bible  by  the  young  under  the  leadership  of  grown 
folks  of  good  sense  and  of  devout  spirit  is  the  best  religious  training  the 
church  can  give.  It  is  even  better  than  preaching.  Throughout  the 
whole  country  most  of  the  membership  of  the  churches  were  converted 
during  the  Sunday-school  years,  from  fourteen  to  eighteen  years.  It 
would  be  the  greatest  possible  blessing  to  Gibson  County  if  in  all  the 
churches  of  all  denominations  the  leaders  would  build  up  the  Sunday- 
school,  going  after  the  children  that  do  not  attend,  organizing  them 
in  classes  and  teaching  all  the  lessons  of  religion  and  morality  while 
their  minds  are  open  and  their  characters  are  being  formed. 

Seventh.  We  recommend,  therefore,  that  Gibson  County  organize 
no  more  churches.  It  has  too  many  churches  already.  When  somebody 
proposes  to  build  a  new  church  let  someone  else  say,  "Stop!  Would 
it  not  be  better  to  build  rooms  for  the  Sunday-school  children?"  Only 
1,572  children  are  in  the  country  Sunday-schools,  but  in  the  day  schools 
there  are  6,641.  Something  should  be  done  to  get  these  country  children 
under  the  teaching  and  training  of  the  grown  folks  who  are  so  generally  in 
the  churches.  If  these  young  people  are  going  to  be  kept  in  the  country, 
they  must  come  to  respect  their  elders,  and  learn  to  love  them.  Not  all 
parents  are  good  teachers  of  religion.  The  Holy  Spirit  has  not  made 
every  man  a  teacher,  even  though  he  be  a  father.  Not  every  mother 
who  can  bring  children  into  the  world  can  bring  them  into  the  Kingdom. 
Only  a  few  men  and  women  in  every  community  are  able  to  teach.  The 
Sunday-school  gives  these  few  an  opportunity. 

We  recommend  a  building  movement  in  the  country  churches  in 
Gibson  County  in  which  there  shall  be  ropms  erected  for  the  teaching 
of  religion.  Upon  every  country  church  should  be  built  several  rooms 
large  and  small.  There  should  be  one  room  for  a  Bible  class  where  some 
Godly  man  of  mature  years  and  devout  spirit  shall  teach  the  men  and 
women  the  deep  lessons  of  the  spirit.    Then  there  should  be  a  room  for 

47 


1012  01235  2961     ] 

the  boys  in  their  teens;  another  room  for  the  girls  in  their  teens,  where 
each  should  have  a  teacher  of  their  own,  wise  and  warm-hearted,  who 
will  take  up  the  great  lessons  about  the  heroes  of  the  Bible  and  teach 
them  to  the  young  while  their  minds  are  open  to  these  stories.  There 
should  be  also  a  room  for  boys  and  girls  where  several  classes  might  be 
taught.  In  this  instance  the  teachers  may  be  young  men  and  women 
not  so  wise  nor  so  mature  in  judgment  as  the  few  great  teachers  in  the 
school,  but  sensible  and  good  and  knowing  the  Bible.  Then  there  should 
be  a  room  for  the  little  children  where  no  one  else  shall  come  in  to  dis- 
turb and  where  a  Godly  woman  of  leadership  and  with  a  tender  heart 
for  the  young  shall  preside. 

The  church  of  whatever  denomination  that  builds  a  building  like 
this  will  do  great  service  to  the  whole  country  side.  All  christian  people, 
even  if  they  cannot  agree  to  the  doctrines  of  that  church,  ought  to  give 
their  money  to  support  it,  ought  to  worship  with  its  people  and  pray  for 
its  success,  for  that  church  will  be  the  social  center.  It  will  be  the 
neighborhood  church  and  it  will  help  every  other  church  within  ten 
miles  by  the  success  and  the  spiritual  service  which  shall  be  within  its  walls. 

Eighth.  The  pressing  necessity  of  Gibson  County  is  a  new  kind  of 
school.  There  should  be  established  at  the  best  point  in  the  County, 
for  farmers  to  attend  it,  a  school  for  grown-up  folks,  where  no  one  under 
eighteen  years  should  be  admitted,  and  no  one  over  fifty  should  be  re- 
jected. It  should  be  a  religious  school,  full  of  the  sound  of  hymns  and 
beginning  every  class  with  prayer.  The  teaching  should  be  about  farm- 
ing, and  the  scholars  should  be  country  people,  who  have  farms  or  are 
working  on  farms.  The  courses  should  be  short,  each  person  being  ex- 
pected to  stay  no  more  than  six  months.  A  man  or  woman  can  learn  a 
great  deal  in  six  months,  if  he  has  a  farm  or  a  country  home  to  practice  on. 

The  teachers  in  this  school  must  be  trained  men  and  women,  as  good 
as  are  at  the  University,  but  they  must  not  try  to  make  their  scholars 
too  learned.  They  are  to  train  farmers,  not  to  make  professors.  There- 
fore they  ought  to  use  few  books  and  many  examples.  When  they  talk 
about  trees,  they  ought  to  draw  a  tree  on  the  board  and  talk  about  it 
for  a  while,  then  take  the  class  out  in  the  orchard  and  show  what  they  are 
talking  about,  on  an  actual  tree.  When  they  talk  about  butter,  instead 
of  a  book  about  butter,  they  ought  to  have  cream  and  a  churn  and  salt 
right  there,  and  make  butter  before  the  class. 

This  kind  of  a  school  will  make  Christian  farmers,  who  will  stay  in  the 
country.  If  we  can  keep  our  church  people  in  the  country,  we  can  keep 
up  the  churches  that  are  there.  If  the  farmers  prosper  and  are  happy 
there,  we  will  have  preachers  to  live  with  them.  If  the  schools  will  turn 
their  hand  to  making  good  farmers,  there  will  be  no  great  trouble  about 
maintaining  the  churches  in  the  country. 

48 


Date  Due 

fV  3-   42 

;.  >~^-i 

V 

m 

$) 

J 


4 


